And I snapped, “Well, she asked you to!”
Fuck.
Tol’s answering silence could have incinerated the whole of Ambrisk. “What?”
I sighed. I hadn’t meant to say that, but now it was out there, and guilt wrung my fucking heart. I did my best to remain calm as I explained, “Ophelia sent a message to Santorina before she left. She wants you to stay away.” Tolek’s throat worked over a swallow, but he showed no emotion. I pinched the bridge of my nose. “It sounded like there was a threat. Something she didn’t want any of us near.”
Mila stiffened, but she didn’t say anything.
“What kind of threat?” Tol ground out.
I shook my head. “I don’t know. But she made us promise to keep you away.”
Another swallow from Tolek, his hands fidgeting behind his back. “I’m going after her.” And he stormed from the room.
I jolted into motion. “Wait! Tolek, you can’t!”
“What do you mean I can’t?” he roared, whirling on me in the wide hallway of the capitol, surrounded by artwork and artifacts of another clan. The Soulguiders fell into an observant silence.
I fought to keep my composure in front of them. To maintain the control of a leader. “We’re all doing things we don’t want to, Tolek. For whatever reason, Ophelia asked you—she asked all of us,” I corrected, “tostay away. She doesn’t wantanyoneto come for her.”
Tolek shoved a hand through his hair, leaving it standing on end. “What if something’s wrong?”
“We need to trust that she has a plan.”
“When has she asked for help, though?” He shook his head, his patience completely frayed. Desperate. “Ophelia doesn’t blatantly ask for help. She shows when she needs it, and that’s when I step in, but how am I supposed to help her from so far away?” He groaned. “Fucking Angels, CK, it’s been a month since I’ve seen her! How am I supposed to know the signs?”
Spirits, he was broken. He was heartbroken from Lyria’s death, and when Echnid took Ophelia his lifeline snapped. Every day without her sharpened the ruined pieces.
Vale had only been gone a couple days, and I was already going crazy, would go to her now if I could. I couldn’t blame Tol.
“You and Ophelia—” I sighed. “What you two have built is strong, Tolek. She’s coming back to you. She just needs time to figure out what’s going on.”
He wasn’t hearing me, though, too lost to his own grief. “She shouldn’t have to! She shouldn’t have to be in Damenal with that god. She shouldn’t have to be trying to figure a way out of this without me!”
“None of us should have to do any of the things we’ve done! Malakai shouldn’t have had to sign that treaty, you shouldn’t have nearly died when a building collapsed, Vale shouldn’t have had to go back to Titus—but we’re all doing it! We’re all doing our damn jobs to try to see the end of this mess, and I need you to do this now.” I panted, my words echoing against the tiled floors as Soulguiders hurried about, pretending not to listen.
Cursed Spirits, none of us should be in these positions. Who did I think I was, trying to lead a clan? From another territory, no less? I hadn’t been raised to do any of this. My hands fisted at my sides, and I wished my scythe was at my back.
In a whisper, I added, “Ophelia needs you to do this.”
Tolek breathed heavily, his head slightly shaking. “Send someone else,” he begged.
“You’re the only person,” I told him. “You and Sapphire. It has to be someone who can fly directly into the palace grounds to speak with Barrett, and Jezebel isn’t back from Valyn yet. And it has to be someone that doesn’t hold a position of power with the Mystiques, so when you address Engrossians, it doesn’t look like you have a hand in our political movements and are there solely as a show of good faith.”
“But I’m Ophelia’s”—his words cut off, his hand going to his chest where Malakai had the Bind inked—“whatever I am.”
Fucking Spirits, those words were heavy. “You’re who Ophelia loves, yes. You’re who is going to spend the rest of yourfuckinglife with her. But you do not have an official title.”
It was an awful thing to use against him, and I’d knee Barrett in the groin if we all survived this for putting me in this position, but Tolek had never wanted a title anyway.
For a long silence, Tol fisted his hands at his sides. Then, he straightened and clasped his arms behind his back. “My job is to help Ophelia,” he ground out. “That’s what I’m here for. That’s what I’ll do.”
“So?” I asked, afraid to state the question.
“Sapphire and I will assist with the heretics in Engrossian Territory however we can.”
He strode away, and guilt threatened to drown me. With a groan, I scrubbed a hand over my face and turned back toward the war room.
